Review: ‘Titans’ Season 1 Episode 8 – “Donna Troy”

The end of the first season is fast approaching. We’re very clear on who the characters are, and the major looming threat seemingly went up in flames in the last episode. This week we get the biggest, yet least forced, insight into the wider DC universe. Opening the episode with three excellent name drops within two sentences of each other! I have a lot to say about that opening scene, but the entire episode makes a great show into how big this vision of the DC Universe is.

Bird Boys And Wonder Girls

In this chapter the team feel the need to split. We all know that this irks me, ladies and gentlemen. It’s becoming more and more improbable that the team can be whole, then break and then come back together. I suppose that we have to see that the show is led by Dick Grayson, a man not used to leading. He is changing his nature to work with this team. The episode is dominated by two storylines: the journey with Rachel’s mother, and Dick meeting with his dear friend Donna Troy.

I really want to trust the mother.

Anyway, the dynamic between Dick and Donna is absolutely perfect. There’s witty repartee between two characters that are similar to their cores. It’s a character study to their entire dynamic as members of the original Teen Titans, from back when the team was created. The scene between young Dick and Donna sets the precedent for children fighting crime. In the bulk of the episode, Brenton and Conor Leslie play their parts perfectly. The history, without unnecessary padding, shows their closeness to a new viewer, but affirms their friendship to every fan. Wonderful character building.

Conclusion

The uncertainty about one character’s past is starting to fade away throughout this episode. We caught brief glimpses of realization while the team was in the asylum, but having a flood of recollection gives us the most dramatic ending of an episode thus far.

I'm a graduate of literature and creative writing and I'm living to write. Be it swords and sorcery, speculative fiction, or Bat news right here. When I want to leave the keyboard alone, find me playing every kind of tabletop game under the suns.